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Thursday, November 19, 2009

Bachpan

Aaah.. just the mention of it brings back so many memories, kuch khaati kuch meethi ..Such were those days !! Most of my childhood memories are filled around my 2 sisters R and S and lil kiddo brother (He is all married now but for me, still that lil kid, even today)a) I am the bossSo, these stories go back to the times when it was just 3 of us.And we were like ages 5-6-7 yrs (yeah all 3 of us are a year apart) And because I was the eldest of them, so R and S just accepted whatever crazy explanations I used to give them for all their questions. Every year, during oursummer vacations, we used to come to Delhi to my Nani's place. And the most exciting part of that used to be the 30 hour train journey from Ranchi to Delhi. So, in the train, all 3 of us used to take turns to sit on the window side. We loved to see through lots of fields, stations, huts ... Loved the "white puri (Aka chole bhatoore) at Kanpur station

And one of the interesting things we used to observe was lots of those "star shaped electrical grids". So my "obviously curious" sisters asked me "Mona, Do you know what are these?"

And Ms Mona(yeah, that's me) could never say "I don't know" to any of those questions.

So despite being a 7 yr old myslef, my "intelligent reply" to them was "You see, on Dusshera,you have seen how they burn the Ravan and Meghnad, so these are the frames that are left over after they have burnt those?"R & S (together, with a weird surprise look) - Really? But why would they burn Ravan near the train lines and so far away from houses?Me (Feeling very proud, that I have an answer for that too) - Are budhuu !! they do it so that no one gets burn when the Ravans are burnt !!And they would be so excited, that they counted all the "so called Ravans" throughout the train ride. And now years later, till today, they tease me about that "explanation" I gave them :-)

Any explanation I give to them, is compared to that "response" to rate it on a stupidity scale !!

b) Okay, so this incident relates to my lil brother M. As per my mom, I was the spoiling factor for my brother. (Now tell me, was I spoiling him if I used to do his homework with my left hand when he was getting late in the morning, or covering his copies with brown cover, so that the teacher would not reject his homework, giving him chocolates from my share of money which mamaji used to give me when he used to visit us ??)

Anyways, that's still a debate factor between me and my mom. So one fine afternoon, based on some arguement with mom,he decides that no one loves him in the family and he just doesn't want to live here. So he packs his stuff (which consisted of a box filled with all sorts of colorful marbles, stickers and one of his fav T shirt) and gets out of the house. My mom never pampered her kids, when they threatened her about 2 things: Leaving the house and not eating the food.

So my mom was really cool and I was getting all teary eyed, asking my mom to stop him. And my mom's response was: "He has to realize himself to come back. So just wait and watch and see him come back"(all this while,my 2 sisters are watching the entire saga and giggling saying "In dono ke drame to hamesha chalu rehte hai !!")It was a hot summer afternoon in Delhi. We had a park just opposite our house. So M goes there and sits on a bench for some time. Then, I guess he gets thirsty, so he got up and tried to get a sip of water from one of the taps in the park. As you can guess, he did not like that hot water (ascompared to gulping water straight from the fridge water bottle). So he sits there for a while again and then rings the bell at home. I run to answer it, but my mom stops me in between and asks him "Kaun hai? Kya chahiye? (Who is it? What do you want?)"And M replies: "Ek pani ki bottle to de do!!"And my mom says "Ghar par aakar apne aap le jao"He decides he doesn't want it and goes away again. And all through this, I am all hysteric as to what will happen to my lil brother.So he finally roams around in the street for about 45 mins more, then may be realises that the streets are all deserted and it is all hot and humid. So, he finally rings the bell again and says "Yeh mat samajhna ki main wapas aa gaya hoon.Main sirf abhi sone aaya hoon. Uthkar fir se chala jaoonga !!(Don't think I have come back. I am just here to take a nap. I'll leave again after I get up)"And the rest, you can imagine, what would have happened !! He didn't even remember that he had to leave after he got up. His friends came to call him for their street cricket game and the day just went off. At dinner time, when we reminded him to leave, he was all embarrased and just ignored us !! We tease him till today for that and that fella has one standard answer :Are, teeno behno ka byaah jo karna tha na, isliye ruk gaya :-)" (I just came back because I had 3 sisters to marry off !!)

c) Hum TeenIt was the time when I was probably 8 yrs old and we were still in Ranchi at that time. And my mom had to go to Delhi urgently for a week because my Nanaji was ill. so she asked a lady to cook for us.And instructed all 3 of us to take care of ourselves and my dad properly. And also not to miss school or homework. And again (as always), I was the eldest, so the responsibility was on me to make sure that the other 2 did not create any panga.So, the day, my mom was to leave, we all went to the railway station to board her in the train. And just as the train had left, we realised, that the home keys were gone with Mom. But the train was also gone.Anyways, so my dad came up with an idea. The train to Delhi from Ranchi also went to few of the other closeby stations like Patratu and Ramgarh.So my dad asked one of his workers to drive to one of those stations and see if he could get the keys from my Mom there. However, all those efforts were futile. so, we came back and now we are trying to find a way to get into our home.So dad gets a ladder, and tried to get into the house through one of the other verendah we had. and he does.Finally, we are in the house. Then the cooking lady's son comes and informs us that she slipped in her house and she won't be able to come and cookfor us !! All of us, including my dad, look at each other's face as to "What do we do now?" (Remember, that was not the era of Maggi/McDonalds/Pizza)But, me being the eldest, blart off: "Don't worry , Papa. Hum kuch bhi bana lenge !!"And all 3 of us get into the kitchen and make "Aadhi kachi aadhi pakki" rotis and aloo matar sabzi.And my ever darling dad ate that khana, without even letting us know that mirchi was too much and salt was too less. My mom called us back as soon as she reached Delhi (next morning, again remember, that was the era of no-cellphone)She was not told anything till she came back. She didn't even realize that the keys were gone with her till after a few days.But we 4 had great fun with dad during those days. Hewould come back home from work early every day and take us for a softy at Firayalal.Those were the days... they were really golden !!I can go on and on and on about thoseBut I'll be back soon with more stories....Till thenDil se

10 comments:

bahut hi majedaar post ha..do you remmebr that ad where that little boy wants to leave the house and then family intentionally shows him Jalebi and then he says that he will leave tomorrow..oh I loved that ad and that little boy.

@Antarman: thanks !! Yes I remember that ad and I loved that one, specially the lil boy and the way he reacted when the postman tells him "Maa ne jalebi banayee hai !!" :-)And me blogrolling you.

@Hitchwriter: Thank you !! you have a twin brother? That must have been so cool, na? Did you steal his homework and say it was yours at school? My cousin twin brothers used to do this drama every morning at the school :-)And, yeah, you better run !!

@Sara: You are very right. Those were really the golden days. (Sigh) If you back there again, ping me and I'll come along too :-)

@Reflections: Thank you !! Yeah, my lil brother, didn't even realise when he grew up so much!!I'll definitely take over the tag.

@AD:Welcome here !! You can call me anything. All are my favorite :-) Saw your blog and loved it. Need to come back to check out your photo blog too. Blogrolling you on my list.